There's a new coffee place in Johnson Village, outside of Buena Vista - we've driven past it 3 times in the last couple of months as we always head west when we ATV but had never stopped as it's difficult when we're tripled up! But our fall trip is just the truck pulling the trailer with the Razor on it, so plenty of space to park and we stopped to check it out!! The coffee was great!! So it's on the list of places to stop again!!
My worst fears were confirmed as we got closer and closer and there were barely any trees that are yellow - darn - could this be the year that we would actually miss them? YES - after hitting peak season for several years in a row, this year did not pan out!! There were a few trees that were yellow but all in all, I would say only about 30% of them were turned! So the trip became more of an ATV trip instead of a leaf peeping trip - oh well, that's life!!
Our plan was to stop in Sargents and ATV for a couple of hours since that place has gorgeous aspen trees - but we could tell as we were driving that barely any had turned in that area so we just headed on to Lake City - took a gravel road for many miles that was gorgeous and came in the back way to Lake City.
We got checked into our cabin - cute, rustic and charming, but not a lot of room in the tiny kitchen/living room area! This was the first time we had actually stayed in the town as usually we're out by the lake!
But the nice thing was we were 1/2 mile from the eating places so we could walk everywhere! There's a beautiful river running through Lake City so took a few pics as we walked!
This is called their "beach"! The sign says no lifeguard on duty so swim at your own risk!
We ate at Packer's Bar and Restaurant and it was so busy, we had to sit outside in the courtyard - the food was good though and as long as we wore our jackets, it wasn't too cold! By the time we left there was a line of people to be seated! Not many places to eat in this town!
We were also excited to read before we left that ATV's are NOW allowed on the 2 mile stretch of highway that connects the town of Lake City to the lake area - that allows us to do the complete Alpine Loop which consists of Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass!
Nellie Creek Trail is all my all time FAVORITE trail for aspens - this year was disappointing of course because there was hardly any color but it's still a great trail with lots of aspens and this beautiful waterfall!
I take this exact photo every time we go to Lake City - it's hanging on my wall at home with yellow colors on it, unlike this year but it's still fun to take the photo!!
Pretty desolate as we get towards the top of Engineer Pass!
Yes, it was cold and windy as usual!!
Then it was on to Cinnamon Pass - not quite as cold but still very windy!
Yes, that's snow on these mountains - but it sure makes for a pretty picture!!
It was a long day doing both passes so Glenn was ready for a nap before we headed out to walk and eat that night - we ate at Southern Vittles that night - great BBQ!!
2 comments:
Still so beautiful!!
Colorado sure is beautiful!
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